Bidder is selected

High-ranking city officials gave their support Nov. 14 to the bid by St. Joseph Health System to buy South Coast Medical Center.

The state attorney general must approve the sale to St. Joseph, which also owns Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.

“Many people said it would be impossible to keep our community hospital,” said Mayor Pro Tem Cheryl Kinsman, who served with Mayor Jane Egly and Assistant City Manager John Pietig on the City Council’s hospital subcommittee.

“Despite the doubts, Jane, John and I kept working with the hospital and other healthcare providers until we were fortunate enough to get this offer from St. Joseph.”

St. Joseph is a not-for-profit, California-based Catholic health system with 14 acute-care facilities in the state, Texas and New Mexico.

The goal of Adventist Health, according to the announcement released last week, was to make the transition to the new owner a seamless process for employees, physicians and patients.

“Personally, I would like to see St. Joseph retain the services of Elizabeth Pearson, who headed the SCMC Foundation, and chief executive Bruce Christian, whose experience and familiarly with Laguna would be invaluable,” Kinsman said.

St. Joseph’s bid meets most of, if not all, of the city’s criteria for a new owner that the council agreed on at the Nov. 4 meeting and forwarded to Adventist officials, Egly said.

Pearson did not attend the meeting or participate in any of the numerous closed sessions the council has held on the hospital sale because of her position at the medical center.

In all, the council approved nine recommendations:

1. Provide the community with a long-term commitment to maintain a general, acute-care hospital with basic emergency medical services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“This is the key condition,” Pietig said. “These services are essential to the community and to minimize the distance public safety personnel must travel when conducting emergency transports.”

The city also would like to see radiation therapy, not presently provided.

2. The new owner should demonstrate the commitment and financial ability to purchase the assets, modernize the hospital and address seismic improvements when they are required.

3. Continue to operate as a not-for-profit hospital.

4. Have substantial experience operating a full-service hospital and an emergency room.

5. Possess a high degree of integrity and a good reputation in the communities it serves.

6. Maintain existing levels of participation in Medicare and Medi-Cal, and commit to negotiating in good faith to secure contracts with health insurance plans covering the majority of the local insured population.

7. Retain the existing medical staff, nurses and volunteers to the greatest extent possible.

8. Establish a local governing board with community representation.

9. Maintain charity and indigent care at the present level.

“We were told that the reason St. Joseph wanted us was because the community was so involved in the preservation of the hospital,” Kinsman said.

Adventist, which has owned the hospital since 1959, put it up for sale in September for the third time in five years, claiming enormous financial losses.

According to the news release, Adventist officials will begin confidential negotiations with St. Joseph, although the attorney general’s approval process could take several months.

ST. JOSEPH HEALTH SYSTEM FACTS

 St. Joseph Health System is a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, based in Orange County, who trace their roots back to 17th century France and the vision of a Jesuit priest named Jean-Pierre Medaille. He organized an order of religious women who, rather than remaining cloistered in a convent, would venture out into the community and minister to the community’s needs.

 In 1912, a small contingent of the Sisters of St. Joseph came to Eureka at the invitation of the local bishop, to establish a school. The great influenza epidemic of 1918 caused the sisters to temporarily abandon their education efforts to care for the sick in their homes. They realized the community needed a hospital. In 1920, the sisters opened the 28-bed St. Joseph Hospital of Eureka, and their new healthcare ministry was born.

 In 1982, St. Joseph Health System, a not-for-profit Catholic healthcare system, was established. The system is organized into three regions: Northern California, Southern California and West Texas/Eastern New Mexico.

 St. Joseph Health System consists of 14 acute-care hospitals, plus home health agencies, hospice care, outpatient services, skilled nursing facilities, community clinics and physician organizations.

 In 2007, the system employed 19,364; had a total net revenue of $3.69 billion; and community benefit of $461.7 million, including care for the poor.

 In Southern California, St. Joseph owns: St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley; St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton; St. Joseph Hospital in Orange; and Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.

HOW TO CONTACT

Call (714) 347-7500 or visit www.stjhs.org